(News Bulletin 247) – The apple group lost 3.6% on Wednesday at the close of US markets after the Wall Street Journal reported that China had banned government agency employees from using or bringing back phones foreign brands at work.

If Apple seeks to develop in India to fuel its growth, China remains a critical country for the group. Over the first six of its financial year ended last April, China thus represented 19.6% of its total revenues.

But information from wall street journal came to shake the action of the group led by Tim Cook, Apple having ended down 3.6% at the close of US markets on Wednesday evening. A decline that wipes out about $80 billion in market capitalization.

According to the WSJ, China has banned the use of iPhones or phones from foreign brands for employees of government agencies. These officials can therefore neither take these phones to work nor even bring them to the office.

>> Access our exclusive graphic analyses, and enter into the confidence of the Trading Portfolio

Even Apple is under threat in China

These instructions were given during meetings or via messaging applications. The daily specifies that if these restrictions are not totally new, their diffusion has been significantly widened, even if the extent of this diffusion is not exactly known.

This decision marks a new step in the actions taken by Beijing to limit its vulnerability to foreign technologies and ensure its cybersecurity. At the expense of Apple, whose high-end products enjoy great popularity in China.

“Even Apple isn’t immune…in China where it employs hundreds of thousands, if not more than a million workers, to assemble its products as part of its relationship with Foxconn,” Tom said. Forte, analyst at DA Davidson, quoted by the Guardian.

This “should encourage companies to diversify both their supply chain and their customer base in order to be less dependent on China in case tensions escalate,” he added.

Security and economic interests

Quoted by wall street journalPaul Haenle, former China director on the US National Security Council under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, believes that Beijing’s decision is likely motivated by economic and national security concerns.

“On the security front, Beijing might be concerned about backdoor access to government employees’ data. On the economic front, China would likely welcome market share gains made by domestic manufacturers,” he said. -it develops.

It should be noted that Apple was also penalized on Wall Street by a market context that was not conducive to technology stocks. The rise in bond rates weighed on these securities, growth groups whose valuations are by construction very sensitive to the rise in interest rates. The Nasdaq also fell 1.06% on Wednesday evening.

And on the Paris Stock Exchange this Thursday morning, the strongest declines are accused by groups in the technology sector, namely Worldline (+2.7%), STMicroelectronics (-1.7%) and Capgemini (-1.3%) . Even Publicis (-2%) with its recent technological change can be associated with this universe.